


across the stars

by politicalmamaduck



Series: On the Hunt [2]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Dark Side Rey, F/M, Force Bond (Star Wars), Rey Palpatine, Smuggler Ben Solo
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-09
Updated: 2017-07-09
Packaged: 2018-11-29 23:33:23
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,137
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11451372
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/politicalmamaduck/pseuds/politicalmamaduck
Summary: After their encounter on Endor, the Master of the Knights of Ren chases a certain smuggler that she can't get out of her mind across the galaxy.





	across the stars

She had chased him across the stars.

The Master of the Knights of Ren would not be bested by a mere smuggler, by a pathetic scion of a lost and broken family who had neglected their true calling.

Ben Solo taunted her. She saw glimpses of the Millennium Falcon in the Ring of Kafrene, on Tatooine, on Coruscant.

She followed him across the galaxy, but he followed her into her dreams.

Wet, delicious, wicked dreams they were, filled with passion and bloodlust.

She was cruel, jealous and possessive in her desire, and so was he.

He was never gentle with her. Neither was she with him. She wouldn’t have wanted him any other way.

Rey Palpatine loved--and hated--with the intensity with which she lived.

It seemed the smuggler was no different. 

_Perhaps he could be turned after all_. She felt the conflict within him between his grandfather’s legacy and his uncle’s teachings.

Their nightly encounters were wordless, touchless, hopeless. They knew they would meet again in person, and that blood would be shed.

The smuggler would join her or die with the loathsome Resistance. When they next met in person, she would show no mercy.

The way his luscious lips curled into a bemused smirk be damned. She’d wipe the smirk off those full lips.

* * *

If anything, the scar she’d given him last time made him even more devilishly handsome.

It was on Corellia that she finally found him. His father’s homeworld, a dark industrial world known for its pilots and its whiskey.

He was in a notorious gambling den favored by the pilots. He did not try to hide, did not try to run as she approached him at a back table in the corner.

His left leg was stretched across the booth; his right hand cupped his glass.

“Ran out of luck, did you?” she asked, and sure enough, he smirked up at her, not moving from his sprawled position.

“I didn’t take you for the sabacc type,” he responded, finally removing his leg and sitting up properly, showing his full height. “I had you pegged more for dejarik. Vicious and aggressive, you know,” he said, winking at her.

Rey resisted the urge to slap him in the face.

“I didn’t come here to waste time discussing your gambling vices with you, smuggler,” she spat, and he raised his eyebrows.

“What a shame, I was going to buy you a drink,” he said, swallowing the rest of his in one gulp. Rey hated the way she liked watching him drink. The hate would make him easier to kill. The memory of how his Adam’s apple bobbed as he swallowed the amber liquid would not.

He shrugged, as if reading her mind, then got up and offered her his arm. “Shall we take this outside?” he asked, as if escorting her for a night out on the town.

She took his offered arm, growling at him.

He merely chuckled as he led them outside. She knew the Millennium Falcon must have been nearby. She should have disabled it before seeking him out. _Stupid, Rey, focus_ , she thought. She had been so intent on her prey that she had allowed it to cloud her mind.

Perhaps that had not been the only thing clouding her mind, she realized, as she became very aware of the feeling of his muscled arm beneath her hand. She yanked herself away from him as soon as they were safely away from the cantina.

She had been in a maelstrom of anger and desire since they had met for the first time.

It was those feelings, that heady swirling storm, that she pushed down on, allowing it to compact and flow through her as she ignited her lightsaber.

It glowed red in the dark Corellian night, making her face appear sharp and angular. Frightening, the way she liked it. Those weak and pathetic men who had made unwanted advances on her in the past had that visage, that of the Master of the Knights of Ren, as the last thing they saw in this life.

Ben Solo was not one of those pathetic, ineffectual fools.

He sighed, and taking another step back from her, ignited his own lightsaber. His face seemed to say _Really, Rey? Do we really have to do this again?_

She would not give up, nor would she give in.

“Join me or die, grandson of Vader,” she said, and he laughed.

“You don’t really want to kill me,” he replied, stepping towards her.

“I would much rather have you as my apprentice,” she said, bending her knees into a fighting stance. “But if you will not join me, then I have no choice.”

“Is that really true?” he asked. “I think you have a lot more choices than you want to admit.”

She snarled, lashing out with her ‘saber. He took a step backward, but did not betray any surprise.

“Enough, smuggler. Stop trying to distract me with your mindless prattle. I know it was a favorite technique of your pathetic father’s.”

Without waiting for another sarcastic response from that pretty mouth, she charged forward and swung at him.

Their blades met, crackling, the way they had on Endor. The way their mouths had torn at each other in their dreams.

Red and blue turned to purple in the smoky Corellian night. Their duel was an ancient, rhythmic dance to the beat of their hearts and intake of their breaths as the music.

She spun with her blade, and he met her, blocking her strokes, again and again.

His dark curls glistened blue in the meager light of his blade, while his pale skin was illuminated by the few streetlamps.

She sliced upward, aiming for that pretty face again, and he met her, then pushed her away with a strong Force blast.

She fell flat onto her bottom in the street, and he dashed away. She was stunned but for a moment, and winded. She should not have left herself so exposed, so unguarded. She had not been expecting him to use the Force against her even though that was how their fight had ended the last time.

She had let him get the better of her, again, and she hated both him and herself for it.

She roared with her anger, then pushed herself back up with the Force and chased after him.

He leapt aboard the Millennium Falcon, and it took off.

She stood in the dingy Corellian street, and deactivated her lightsaber, watching him disappear among the stars.

_I will find you, Ben Solo,_ she thought, knowing he’d hear her.

_You can’t keep running from me forever._

_I don’t want to_ , he replied.

_But you’ll have to follow me across the stars_.

Rey drew up her cloak, and headed back to her ship.

**Author's Note:**

> A huge thank you to the lovely maq-moon for her beta help!  
> Comments and constructive feedback always appreciated. You can find me at politicalmamaduck.tumblr.com!


End file.
